News:

Your username and password for these discussion forums are unique to the forums. Your forum login information is separate from your My Adventure Cycling login information, and your login info for the Cyclosource online store. You will need to create a separate login for each of these. However, to make things a bit easier, you can use the same email and password for all three accounts. Also, please note that your login information for the forums is not connected to your Adventure Cycling membership number. We apologize for any inconvenience caused.

We have blocked registrations from several countries because of the large quantities of spam that originate there. If the forum denies your legitimate registration, please ask our administrator for an exception. webmaster@adventurecycling.org will need your IP address, which you can find at many web sites, including http://whatismyipaddress.com.

Author
Topic: looking for advice
(Read 4499 times)

Hi everybody,After making it slog through traffic every day for five months, I'm finally getting my 5 mo. old Cross-Check out into the wilds (as they are in tidewater, Virginia). This is going to my first extended (more than one day) trip myself. I'll be leaving from my house on the 8th for two weeks to check out as much of the south as I can and spend some time alone with my thoughts. I have some questions:Routes leaving from Richmond, Virginia toward the southeast? The Transamerica trail runs 25 miles north of here, but I'm thinking that I'd like to ride southwest. I don't know if there are any Virginians on this posting, but if there are I would love some advice.What were things you brought or didn't bring on your first ride that you needed/never used?What are the parts that are going to wear the most? fastest? That I would be most unlikely to have thought of? Chains? derailleurs? cables? I'm not too much of a mechanic, although I'm learning.What is something that you didn't think of at all before your first ride, or that you think I might not have thought of?Well, thanks for any help you can give.happy trails,Daniel MonteroAnyway, thanks for any help.

In 1998, I rode from Charlottesville to Williamsburg, Virginia, and back. My route back to C'ville was the Transamerica Route, with the exception of going through Richmond instead of circling around it. The route east was one of my own development that crossed the James and then followed the Appomattox River east to Petersburg.

You might find the eastword route useful to ride in reverse. Be aware, however, that Southside Virginia is very rural, and while that makes for a pretty ride through tobacco and grain fields over roads traveled by Phil Sheridan in pursuit of Lee's Army in April 1865, you won't find many places to stay. I camped at a place called Bear Creek Lake State Park in Cumberland County, and it was the only place I could find for miles around.

My home-made cue sheets are on my website athttp://tomrevay.tripod.com/ . Look at the menu on the left for "Cue Sheets," and click on the Civil War item. (I'm one of these guys who's nuts about the War Between the States, and I love riding around battlefield areas.)

I've developed a route for another Civil War bike tour that begins in Washington DC and ends in Richmond, getting there via Harper's Ferry, WV, and Winchester, Harrisonburg, Roanoke, Lynchburg, Appomattox Court House and Amelia Court House, Virginia. I haven't had the time off from work to do this yet, however, and I also don't have a good route to get into Richmond from Amelia. Richmond is sprawling all over the place, and roads that only a decade ago were country lanes are now multi-lane, divided thoroughfares, which aren't pleasant to ride on.

The rest of it, from Amelia to Roanoke, might be useful to you. If you'd like what I have for this route, drop a line back here.